It is not all homes that are lucky enough to come with a basement. They are a great feature with many uses in any home. A lot of dwellings are less fortunate because they have that unusable dirt bottomed cave we commonly refer to as a crawl space. In most residences it can be quite tight and normally you have to belly crawl when you go under there. It can be that these crawl spaces are equipped with lights, but in many older houses they may not have them.
An easily frightened person might want to know why someone would ever find a necessity to go under there anyway, but there are at least a few reasons. An occasion might arise when you need to go under there and see if there is any water in there. This is a more hazardous problem than you think, especially with old homes whose foundations might not be as sturdy as they were in the past.
There are vents that should be put in at your foundation that will automatically open and close to let water under the building dry out. Less new homes may not have them, but they are a good investment. They are not that difficult to install and you may be able to do it yourself. If there is commonly excessive dampness or visible water in the crawlspace, it can eventually make the wood work begin to rot and lead to structural devastation. This will probably be the first reason to check it out under there.
The second problem is every bit as destructive as the first. Leaking water pipes is another thing that will make water stand under a residence. Your main water source goes into the home from here. In living spaces with older plumbing, rust hazards and leaking lines can occur more often. Even in new plumbing, leaks could show up if the lines were installed poorly or incorrectly.
Whenever there is water dripping or splashing and getting on wood, there is potential for water damage and it could occur sooner and with less water than a person might imagine. Under the living space is also where your outside water faucets and the beginning of your sewer lines are located. The spigots could not present much of a problem, but a bad sewer pipe coming out of the dwelling place certainly can be. It can create a hazardous mess in a hurry!
Any leaking under the building has to be taken care of as soon as possible. You may not believe it is really damaging anything if there is water under there, but it might be hurting a lot more than you know.
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